Obama: How We Can Make Our Vision Of a World Without Nuclear Weapons a Reality
Barack Obama | Washington Post
Of all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons. That’s why, seven years ago in Prague, I committed the United States to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and to seeking a world without them. This vision builds on the policies of presidents before me, Democrat and Republican, including Ronald Reagan, who said “we seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.”
Charting the Course for Nuclear Security: An Indian Perspective
Rakesh Sood | Carnegie article
The immense potential of nuclear power is both seductive and scary. In the early years of the nuclear age, the scary aspect led the scientific community to raise the banner of nuclear disarmament, but the seductive component proved too strong for political leaders to ignore.
U.S. and Allies Urge U.N. Action Against Iran For Missile Tests
Edith M. Lederer | Associated Press
The United States and three allies called for a Security Council meeting to respond to Iran's recent ballistic missile tests which they say were carried out in defiance of a U.N. resolution. A report from the U.S., France, Britain and Germany obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press calls the launches "destabilizing and provocative." It said the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile and Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile fired by Iran are "inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons."
Iran’s Supreme Leader Backs Missile Program
Thomas Erdbrink | New York Times
Iran’s supreme leader backed the country’s missile program on Wednesday, criticizing a prominent ayatollah who had suggested that in the future, negotiations were far more important. Defending the military’s recent tests, which critics, particularly in the United States, say are a violation of the recently concluded nuclear agreement, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that both negotiations and the testing of missiles were important to Iran.
Pentagon Confirms New North Korean ICBM
Bill Gertz | Washington Free Beacon
North Korea has developed a new long-range mobile intercontinental ballistic missile that the Pentagon says moves the country’s leader Kim Jong Un closer to the goal of building missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland with nuclear warheads. The new missile is called the KN-14 by the Pentagon and is a longer-range variant of the KN-08 road-mobile ICBM first made public in 2012.
A Grim Warning Against America’s Overuse of Sanctions
David Ignatius | Washington Post
Economic sanctions have become the "silver bullet" of American foreign policy over the past decade, because they're cheaper and more effective in compelling adversaries than traditional military power. But Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warns of a "risk of overuse" that could neuter the sanctions weapon and harm America. Lew made his unusual case against "sanctions overreach" in an interview last week and in a speech prepared for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His caution against overuse comes as some Republican members of Congress are fighting to maintain U.S. sanctions on the Iranian nuclear program, despite last year's deal limiting that Iranian threat.